Finland’s Elenia installs grid bird balls to ward overhead line

Elenia is installing bird balls on the electricity grid to protect the country’s national bird, the whooper swans, in Haapavedi and prevent collisions with overhead lines that could potentially lead to power outages.

According to the Finnish network operator, which supplies electricity to 430,000 customers, almost half of their electricity network is still overhead. The overhead power line can be a danger, they state, especially as the take-off and landing points for swans.

As such, Elenia is installing the brightly coloured warning balls and reflective warning signs on power lines, in an attempt to prevent birds from crashing into the power grids; while dodging the balls or markers, they also dodge the power line.

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Elenia gets information about swan flight paths and potential danger spots from their customers and local bird watchers. Warning balls or signs will be installed at selected locations every 10 to 20 meters.

Cooperation with bird watchers, local residents and BirdLife Finland has already increased the number of bird balls and warning signs in Elenia’s network area to just over 3,000.

Other measures taken by the DSO include bird balloons installed at swans’ favourite nesting and resting places in Häme, Pirkanmaa, Central Finland and Southern and Northern Ostrobothnia.

In the long term, the operator’s final preventative will be underground cabling to ensure a weatherproof electrical network. When electricity distribution in sparsely populated areas is reformed into an underground cable network, states the operator, nature and the area’s birds benefit at the same time.

Bird collisions are a repeated issue faced by grid operators, not only in Finland but across Europe.

According to a study published in October last year by BirdLife International, in Germany at least 1.5 million birds die annually after collisions, which can cause power cuts, power outages and start fires during periods of drought.